Prepaid or Postpaid Connectivity: The Choice Is Yours
By Telit
March 25, 2022
You have options for your IoT deployment. You can select versatile capabilities like embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC) or a plethora of innovative, fit-for-purpose solutions. How you pay for the connectivity of those deployments should be one of your choices, too.
Postpaid plans, in which users are invoiced for actual usage at the end of the billing cycle, have dominated the market. However, prepaid plans, for which users make a one-time payment for a set amount of data, are rising. As connected devices increase, IoT device manufacturers and the service providers that use them need more ways to deliver — and pay for — the best connectivity for their devices.
Each plan has its advantages. Neither is better than the other. One plan could be better for a specific device, business plan, use case or deployment. Business requirements should be the determining factor behind your choice.
Director of Connectivity PM, Telit
Director of Deal Management, Telit
Prepaid or Postpaid Connectivity Plans: How to Choose
Prepaid connectivity plans are cost-effective and work well for specific use cases. They’re useful for situations in which there is no ongoing relationship with the end customer, and connectivity needs can be easily computed based on the device’s lifetime. Good examples are:
- Seasonal deployments such as agricultural sensors
- Tools that need to be accessed by the public like defibrillators in airports
- One-way “tags” embedded in items like high-value shipments with low environmental tolerance
Prepaid plans are well suited for the consumer space in which connectivity is invisible to the end customer. The simplicity of prepaid allows device providers to expand their reach into the lucrative consumer space without cumbersome record keeping and invoicing.
Postpaid plans are also a cost-effective option and work for complex IoT deployments in which there’s an ongoing relationship with the customer and connectivity needs fluctuate. Under this model, end users are assured that they have the connectivity they need and only pay for what they use. Postpaid plans can be customized to align with specific business goals.
Managing connectivity and how to pay for it can be an obstacle for developers. There are dozens of players in the IoT value chain. Dealing with multiple regions, devices and connectivity providers can be complicated. Layering on an invoicing system to bill customers accurately in a postpaid plan adds complexity. The ability to choose between prepaid and postpaid can be a game-changer in overcoming this obstacle.
Get the Plan That Works for You with Telit
Your top priority is ensuring that your business gets the right solutions to fit its needs — and that those solutions function efficiently to their maximum ability. Choosing the right payment plans for your applications and deployments is crucial to your success.
Some IoT providers offer only prepaid plans or only postpaid plans. Telit offers both. With Telit, you can combine prepaid and postpaid models within the same deployment and access those plans through one portal. By bringing prepaid connectivity plans to our Telit NExT™ mobile core network, we’re enabling turnkey services that give you access to more than 600 networks in over 200 countries. Telit makes deployments simpler for you — and seamless for your customers.
Don’t leave money on the table because you don’t have the right payment model for your product. With the choice between prepaid or postpaid connectivity plans, you can bring your product or service to life in the best way for you and your customers.
